USA Basketball Men’s Team Announces Five-Game Exhibition Tour

This summer, the USA Men’s National Team will travel to four cities and play exhibition games versus Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Great Britain and Spain to prepare for the 2012 Olympics, which will be held in London from July 28th to August 12th. The announcement was formally made this morning, and our friends at USA Basketball have the details:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Feb. 24, 2012) – Exhibition games versus Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Great Britain and Spain, and training camps in four cities highlight the 2012 USA Basketball Men’s National Team tour that was announced today.

USA Basketball also announced that the USA Women’s National Team will join the USA Men’s National Team for an exhibition doubleheader in Washington, D.C. versus Brazil on July 16 (5:30 p.m. local time), and will play an exhibition against Great Britain in Manchester, England, on July 18 (7:30 p.m. local time), one day prior to the men’s contest against Great Britain.

The American men will open their training July 6 in Las Vegas, Nev., the domestic home to the USA Basketball Men’s National Team since 2006. The USA squad will train daily July 6-11 at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and will face the Dominican Republic on July 12 (6 p.m. local time) at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center.

The team will move its training to the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., to train July 13-15 and play an exhibition contest versus Brazil at the Verizon Center on July 16 (8 p.m. local time).

The USA will continue its preparations July 17-18 in Manchester and on July 19 (7:30 p.m. local time) will play Great Britain at the Manchester Arena. Tickets for both the USA men’s and women’s national team games against their respective Great Britain counterparts will be available starting March 6. To reserve your tickets please call +44 (0)844 847 8000 or visit www.ticketmaster.co.uk.

Twenty years after the USA Dream Team made its debut in Barcelona, Spain, the U.S. returns and will conclude its tour with a pair of exhibition games against FIBA’s No. 2 and No. 3 ranked world powers. Facing No. 3 ranked Argentina on July 22 (9:30 p.m. local time) at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, the USA will close out its exhibition tour against FIBA’s No. 2 ranked power Spain on July 24 (9:30 p.m. local time) at the Palau Sant Jordi.

“We have again scheduled an extremely challenging lineup of exhibition opponents for our USA Men’s National Team. In addition to playing world powers Spain and Argentina, the team will also face FIBA Americas powers Brazil and the Dominican Republic. Add in what I’m sure will be a very competitive game in Manchester versus Great Britain, and we have an exciting tour schedule we believe will help get our team as best prepared as possible for the summer,” said Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball chairman and national team managing director.

Ten members of the 2010 USA World Championship gold medal winning team, eight 2008 Olympic gold medalists, and two national team players were among the 20 players named on Jan. 16 by USA Basketball as finalists for the USA Men’s National Team.